


Filial Son

by fojee



Series: Not so Secret [3]
Category: Korean Drama, Secret Garden (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 12:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8845747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fojee/pseuds/fojee
Summary: Oska and Ssun's little bubble had to burst sometime.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Coda to the previous two stories, set three years later.

They were living in Los Angeles, in their own little bubble. Out here, Oska didn't get mobbed by his fans while walking down the street, and Tae Ssun preferred it that way. Still, the bubble had to burst some time.

They didn't have an ahjumma to come and cook or clean their house for them. Tae Ssun was on his hands and knees, wiping down the floor while Oska sat perched on the counter, watching him in bemusement.

"She _could_ have given us a little bit more time to prepare," Ssun grumbled, stretching his back and throwing the rag in Oska's direction. 

Oska caught it and dropped it in the sink, before sliding down to the ground so he could pull Ssun up to his feet and kiss him soundly. "More time to worry, you mean. Relax, baby. You have to recognize this visit for what it is: the white flag of surrender."

Ssun rolled his eyes, leaning on Oska and letting the other man hold his weight. Oska and his mother have been locked in a cold war these past three years. They scored points off of each other through cold-voiced phone calls and sharp e-mails, in a system he couldn't even begin to decipher. They've been together long enough for Tae Ssun to realize that Oska's brand of crazy was a family legacy, alongside the boatloads of money and the good looks.

He still remembered the last time he had talked with Oska's mother. This was going to be sheer hell.

"Just because your mother has forgiven _you_ doesn't mean she's accepted _me_ ," he murmured, words almost muffled by Oska's shoulder.

Oska peppered kisses down the side of his neck, hands sliding around his waist. "She has her vicious moments, but she's just a pussycat. You'll see."

He knew Ssun didn't believe him, but Ssun let himself be distracted anyway. The kisses led to the usual step-by-step process, except when Oska reached the unbuttoning his pants step, Ssun suddenly reared back. "Are you crazy? I just finished cleaning the room!"

Oska suddenly felt a pang of worry like a stone in his gut. "When mother is here..."

"We're not having sex while she's in the house," Ssun declared, before pulling away, turning his back to him.

Oska groaned. Then Ssun twisted his head. "What are you waiting for? Come fuck me before her plane arrives, you idiot." 

Oska groaned again, this time for a different reason, and hurried after his lover. He caught him just inside their bedroom door, and pushed him down on their bed, crawling in after. And maybe Ssun's nails scratched his back a little deeper, and his eyes drank him in the whole time, as they found their own rhythm and made their own music together. 

All the while, Oska wordlessly tried to reassure him that they'll survive this too. He liked to think they're both past the doubts and fears, but even three years later, Han Tae Ssun was still a partly feral creature. He held his lover together when ecstasy shook him apart, and he tumbled after, heart pounding in his ears. "Mine," he muttered, as if saying a spell. 

"Always," Ssun answered, legs still wrapped around him. Oska's only reply was a contented rumble.

\---

Ssun bit his tongue for the fifth time in an hour, as he watched Oska's mother inspect the house with her face frozen halfway between politeness and horror. The place was big enough for two people, but a far cry from the house in Seoul, with two floors and three bedrooms, a modified studio that was the size of Oska's old walk-in-closet, and an upright piano taking up most of the space in the den. 

He knew what she must be thinking. Oska had grown up with everything handed to him on a little red velvet pillow. All this must seem like he's slumming it.

But Ssun liked living with Oska in such cozy quarters. They curl up together on the single sofa in the living room while watching dramas and game shows on tv. They cook together in the tiny kitchen, although Oska had only managed to learn two dishes, and could barely cut up vegetables without injuring himself. They could manage the outside world too--beyond grocery shopping and piano lessons and musical collaborations. Oska was more fluent but his accent was deliberately atrocious, and Ssun's vocabulary had been expanded beyond the necessary musical terms. 

They had built a good life together. But seeing her again was a rude reminder that happiness came with an expiry date.

And yet... He could see how she was trying, how she was biting her tongue too. Oska was right; this visit was her way of extending an olive branch.

He just had to figure out precisely what he was going to do about it.

\---

Later, in bed, after he had threatened Oska to keep his hands to himself, Ssun asked him. "What about your other relatives?" He knew how much Oska secretly thrived on the chaos of a big family. 

"Oh, haraboji doesn't care anymore since Joo Won had his heirs, and my step-halmoni is a good distraction. He'll still cut me off his will, probably, but he was going to do that anyway, after I decided not to enter the family business," Oska explained. “I have enough company stocks that it doesn't matter what's in the will. And my aunt is pure viciousness so no great loss there. And since mom is here, that means Hee Won is now officially allowed to visit us." 

Joo Won's little sister was probably the most normal in the whole clan, but Ssun felt a little sorry for whoever she would fall in love with. They wouldn't know what they would be getting into.

"Do you want to go back someday?" He whispered. "I'm sure you get homesick."

Oska turned to him in the dark. "But I'm already home, baby."

Ssun couldn't help but kiss him, and that no-sex rule flew straight out the window.

\---

They were out in the garden, watching Ssun play the piano through the French doors. She sighed, thinking once more how young the kid looked. "What would you do if he leaves?" She blurted out to her son in between sips of her bloody mary.

"I'd chase him down," Oska answered without a second thought, then grinned at her. "Don't worry, mother. I made him sign a contract so he'd take responsibility of me in my old age."

She scoffed. "I'm still not convinced that he won't just break your heart. You've always been a fool for love."

The admission was more than he'd ever gotten out of her, and he beamed, kissing her cheek on impulse. "Give him a chance, mother. He'll be a filial daughter-in-law if you let him be.

She sniffed. He was an adequate cook at least, and the house was kept clean. But still... "You know better than that, darling. I'll accept him as a daughter-in-law the moment he gives me a grandchild." She patted her son's slack jaw and sauntered inside, carefully concealing her smirk. 

Oska laughed uncertainly. It was only a joke, right?

\---

After a week, Oska’s mother finally left, trailing an extra luggage full of the latest clothes. She put on her Chanel sunglasses and leaned her first-class seat as far back as it would go. 

She thought about the kid, the way he wouldn’t meet her eyes for the entire visit, the way Oska couldn’t keep his hands off him, the muffled sounds they made in the night. She thought about the meal her son had prepared for her, and the songs they played together on their cheap piano, and the sound of laughter in the too-small house. It was very different from the life she had envisioned for her only son. 

And yet there was no denying it: Woo Young was happy. 

She took a deep breath and let it out. By this time her son would be discovering her little goodbye present. She twisted her lips, imagining his expression, then consciously smoothed her face to avoid more wrinkles.

Mission accomplished. 

Now she only had to find a boyfriend for her niece, someone who would infuriate her sister even more than Gil Ra Im. She let the pleasant thought lull her to sleep.

\---

Oska frowned down at the large brown envelope he found in their guestroom. He slid the flap open with a finger and emptied it on the bedspread. Pamphlets flew out, with titles like _All You Need to Know About Artificial Insemination_ and _Surrogacy 101_ , and a letter in her mother’s handwriting addressed: _To My Future Daughter-in-law and My Filial Son_. 

He gulped.

**Author's Note:**

> I knew I said the series was finished, but sometimes the characters knock on my door and demand a little scene or three.


End file.
